Video games company Frontier Developments in Cambridge has clinched a £17.7m investment from China.

The subscription agreement is with Tencent, a leading internet and interactive entertainment company based in China.

This is a strategic step for Frontier as it will accelerate and improve Frontier’s access to the growing and already very significant Chinese market.

Tencent serves hundreds of millions of internet users every day, operating the leading social networks, game platform, video service, literature platform, music service, and media platform on the internet in China.

The company has invested in several innovative and successful game developers and publishers globally, including Riot Games, Supercell, Miniclip, Epic Games, Netmarble, Activision Blizzard and Paradox Interactive.

Tencent has taken just under 10% of Frontier with 3,386,252 shares at 523.2 pence per share. The price has been calculated as the last 20 trading days volume weighted average price (VWAP) immediately prior to subscription. Immediately after the price shot up by more than 15%.

Frontier says the £17.7 million will augment its existing cash pile of £12.6 million and allow it to continue to accelerate its investment in scaling up its operations and growing its number of franchises to build on the success of its transition to self-publishing.

David Braben, chief executive of Frontier, said: “Tencent is the market leader in the online games industry in China and operating a premium PC games distribution platform, WeGame. This strategic investment will both help drive our scale up, and improve access and accelerate our growth into the key Chinese market. Tencent will be a powerful partner for Frontier, in what will soon be the world’s largest market for entertainment.”

James Mitchell, chief strategy officer at Tencent, said: “Frontier’s teams use highly scalable game engine technology, decades of development experience, and increasingly sophisticated live operations skills to provide highly-engaged players with complex and beautiful game worlds.

“We believe that gamers in China will become increasingly interested in game genres such as space exploration, theme park management and other segments well-suited to Frontier’s strengths, and look forward to helping Frontier reach those future users.”